Colorado’s forests and mountains aren’t just crowded with hikers and their selfie sticks. Last year, the long arm of the law pulled a record number of marijuana plants from public lands in the state.

In all, officers uprooted nearly 81,000 plants in 2017 from the depths of the state’s mountain ranges, compared to about 45,000 in 2016, according to data collated by a federal drug task force.

This was the third yearly increase in a row, according to the new report. In fact, the reported number of plant confiscations was 18 times higher in 2017 than it was in 2014, the first year of full legalization.

“It was kind of a shock to me,” said Tom Gorman, director of the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a coalition of law agencies. “It’s a lot cheaper to grow on public lands,” he added, noting that earlier busts had found low-paid workers living on the land.

However, U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer thinks that 2018 could see an improvement: He told The Daily (Grand Junction) Sentinel that investigators had seen far fewer grows on public lands this year.

A chart showing the number of marijuana plants reportedly seized in Colorado.

Nick Johnson, a Colorado historian, traced weed on public lands to the 1970s, when a drug crackdown drove cultivation from Mexico into the U.S. It surged again in the 2000s, Johnson wrote — including in Colorado — with the creation of medical marijuana laws.

“Using the plant’s new, semi-legal status as cover, hundreds of outlaw growers began setting up in National Forests, especially in California,” wrote Johnson, who authored a book on marijuana’s history in the West.

The reported volume of public-land busts dropped just ahead of legalization in Colorado, but it has risen steadily since 2014.

At some sites, including in San Isabel National Forest, officials in 2017 found thousands of pounds of trash, man-made reservoirs and pine-timber structures, plus pesticides and other chemicals.

The operations are relatively compact within the sprawling public lands, with just 38 acres cumulatively accounting for about 71,000 plants, according to a news release from Troyer’s office.

San Isabel includes many of the state’s highest peaks, and it was one of the most popular grow sites, accounting for at least 25,500 plants, according to the release.

Other grows were found on islands in the Colorado River, in the White River National Forest and near Whitewater. The affected land is managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service and Colorado Parks and Wildlife.

Andrew Kenney covers Denver and its government. He's interested in how power and development are shaping the city. He previously worked as a reporter for The (Raleigh) News & Observer and for Denverite. Email him at akenney@denverpost.com or call 303-954-1785.

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